Tags: enjoy life

EnjoyLife sent me a huge box of goodies for free, and let me tell you how pleasant of a surprise it was seeing that on my doorstep!

These crunchy cookies are gluten free, dairy free, nut free, and soy free according to the box. The box also states that they are “free from the 8 common allergies”, so one could definitely assume they are allergen friendly :]

They come in 4 different flavors, Vanilla Honey Graham, Double Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, and Sugar Crisp. I was so excited! I generally prefer soft cookies over crunchy or crisp ones, but I am also never one to turn down a good cookie :]

I tried the double chocolate first. Here is what they looked like up close!

Mmmmm. These cookies were nice and crunchy, but not flaky, they had a good body to them. There was clearly a good amount of chocolate chips, but I think it had more of a dark chocolate than a milk chocolate flavor to them. These actually reminded me of a brownie-cookie. They were very sweet and a tad salty, so in other words, a great combination! The consistency was great. Couldn’t tell it was gluten free or anything aside from a regular ol’ gluten-y cookie. Haha. Very good! 4.5 stars

Next up, the chocolate chip. These were yummmay!!! Crunchy and crispy, but had body like the other ones. The chocolate chips melted easily which was a good thing, and they were plentiful without the cookie. There was a slight vanilla flavor as well. They were sweet with a slight punch of saltiness, so again, delicious combo. You really can’t tell it was gluten free! Often I tried GF cookies where you can taste the potato flour or there is a piecy consistency, but not the case with these. They held together well, and I ate, well, ALL of them 🙂 (oops) 4.5 stars

Next up, the Sugar Crisp. Again…yum! Crispy, but not airy, with a prominent vanilla flavor. In fact, these were full of flavor. These had a slight break down after you chew it where you can tell it was made of rice flour, unlike the other two, but they were still quite good. If you like a sweet cookie with a strong vanilla flavor, these are for you. 4 stars

Lastly, Vanilla Honey Graham!Look how perfect these little guys look! These cookies almost tasted like toast with honey spread on it. They had a rather strong honey flavor, and a very slight undertone of vanilla flavor. The toasted flavor however, was quite predominant, and the cookie has strong flavors. I think the toasted flavor was supposed to be the graham flavor, but not too sure. If you like honey, I would say this a good choice. I enjoyed it, but not my favorite of the 4. 3 1/2 stars

Overall, I approve! I would definitely buy some of these if I saw them on my next trip to the supermarket 🙂

Along with the Sunbutter Crunch bars I was sent to try for free from Enjoy Life, I was sent a few other flavors to try for free, including the Caramel Apple variety.

How can you really say no to something Caramel Apple flavored? An image of sticky, chewy, sweet and delicious comes to mind thinking of a caramel apple. And so fitting with the fall. Nothing like a crisp apple picked off a tree! (not that I get to experience that all that often given my current urban situation… -__- )

This bar was pretty good. It was dense and chewy, and had the little crispy rice sort of action going on like the Sunbutter Crunch variety had. I liked that it was sweet, but not I have to make a dentist appointment for the cavity I’m going to develop sweet. A good amount.

I could certainly taste the apple flavor, which was a plus. While I was eating it, I couldn’t help but notice how much it tasted like Quaker Apple Cinnamon instant oatmeal. I would know – I ate that oatmeal SO FREQUENTLY when I was younger. It seemed like every school breakfast I heard the teapot kettle whistle, poured the hot water in my instant oatmeal, ate and went on the school bus. *sigh* back to when life was simple!

So, as a whole for this bar, although it lacks sustainability, as in I’d be hungry still if I only ate this, it was pretty good, and a good snack bar/pre workout boost. I’d give it 4 stars.

What was your typical breakfast before school when you were younger? I alternated with instant oatmeal, and toasted english muffin with peanut butter! =)

Who doesn’t love trail mix? Crunchy, sweet, salty, savory, and satisfying- all in one! I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a box on my front step from Enjoy Life, and inside was their Not Nuts! Seed and Fruit Mix in Mountain Mambo and Beach Bash varieties.

Take a closer look. Here’s the Mountain Mambo

camera fail. blurrrrrry! 🙁

And heres the Beach Bash flavor

Alrighty, let’s get down to business. The first one I tried was the Mountain Mambo. It had apple pieces, raisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and more.

The apple pieces were so yummy! Soft and chewy, and perfect addition.

The raisins were a little off tasting. Not super sweet like I’m used to, and I was a bit disappointed. Especially since in the bag, there was a LOT of raisins. Seriously- I got a big blob of raisins right in the middle all stuck together!

The sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds were very fresh tasting and crunchy, and not really salty at all. However, not salty doesn’t mean they weren’t flavorful! 🙂

Then, I shook up bag a little and found…

Chocolate chips!

These were yummy! Smooth chocolate, and tasted like a milk chocolate would.

Another surprise was I found VERY few cranberries. Only got like 2 in the bag ! However, the two or so I got were quite tasty, and not too tart. So for this variety….

3 ½ stars

Next up, the winner in my eyes, BEACH BASH variety.

Seriously, in a word,- yum.

There were sunflower seeds, pumpkin, apricots, pineapple, cranberries and more. On a brighter side, there were definitely more cranberries in this one and yummy too! Sweet, not tart and chewy!

The pineapple pieces were BEYOND delicious. Seriously- I want a bag of just the pineapple! It was soft, and sugar sweet! I may or may not have picked all the pineapple out of the bag the first day I got it….. oops 😉

The apricot pieces? eh. Kind of hard and dry and tart. Not a fan. Would rather more pineapple…

Adding to the other crunchy Enjoy Life cookies I was sent, the Chocolate Chip and Sugar Crisp, I was also sent the Enjoy Life Crunchy Double Chocolate Cookies to try for free as well.

First off, I loved that there was a good amount of chocolate chips in these cookies, they really were double chocolate, and not something like “chocolate-cookie-with-a-sprinkle-of-chocolate-chips” thrown in.

They were crunchy, but not super crispy where crumbs got every where when I took a bite. I felt that they were softer than the other two varieties of cookies that I tried. They were chocolatey for sure, but not so super chocolately as something like devil’s food cake would be. It reminded me kind of like a crunchy brownie in a way, as for what it would taste like. There also was a little bit of a slightly salty/sweet combo going on as well.

Overall, I actually really liked these! Give me a jar of peanut butter to smear on them alongside a glass of milk, and call me one happy camper. I liked that these had 2 cookies for a serving, were only 110 calories, and only 8 grams of sugar. Not too shabby! 4 stars

If you had to choose…. Double Chocolate Cookies? or Double Chocolate Brownies?

Recently I reviewed the Enjoy Life Crunchy Sugar Crisp Cookies, which I thought were pretty good. Enjoy Life also sent me a box of the new Crunchy Chocolate Chip cookies to try for free as well.

These cookies, as stated from the front of the box, are dairy free, nut free and gluten free, as well as being made with natural ingredients. They looked pretty tasty from the cover, and who am I to ever turn down a chocolate chip cookie?

These cookies were certainly crunchy and sweet. I liked that there were a good amount of chocolate chips as well, which were smooth, but had an off taste. There was also a good amount of vanilla flavor in this that kind of threw me off, and a bit of a brown sugar flavor, which helped sweeten the cookie.

Overall, I think I liked the Sugar Crisp cookies better, these overall were just a bit awkward for me. They are also a tad high in saturated fat ( 3.5 grams per serving), but on a positive note, 2 cookies are only 120 calories. These get 2 1/2 stars from me

Question- Do you like your chocolate chip cookies with a LOT of chocolate chips, or not that many? When it comes to homemade, I prefer not a lot of chocolate chips, but store bought cookies, the more the better! =)

EnjoyLife offered me something new they came out with to try for free, the Double Chocolate Crunch Nut & Gluten Free Granola. Being the nut about granola that I am, (and the fact that chocolate was involved), I couldn’t wait to try it.

This cereal is very “allergy friendly”, as the package states, as it is free of “wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, shellfish” and “also made without casein, potato, sesame and sulfites”. Wow. It’s amazing how they can still make tasty products even with excluding so many different types of food!

Once I got the package, I immediately dove in and gave it a try. Here’s what it looked like

Look at all those yummy chocolate chips!

At first, I thought it was a bit bland, since it’s not super sweet. But, as I ate it, it really is delicious, and I couldn’t STOP eating it! Handful after handful, I ate the yummy granola. I loved the fact that there were a LOT of chocolate chips, no scrimping there for sure, and they were smooth and sweet. The texture of the granola was crispy, crunchy, and it had a mild chocolate flavor, that again, was not overly sweet.

Overall, very good. It was kind of like a bag of chocolate candies, once I started eating a few handfuls, I kept saying “oh, just a little bit more”, and then proceeded to take even more handfuls! I love that this is made with good ingredients,has a bit of fiber, and is a decent portion size given that it involves both chocolate and granola. 4 stars

I’m pretty sure snickerdoodles are my FAVORITE type of cookies. I love the cinnamon sugar flavor, and the chewiness that they have. I was offered a free box of the Snickerdoodle Cookies from Enjoy Life, and was excited to try them. I recently reviewed the Lively Lemon flavor of these cookies I also was sent to try, and thought they were pretty good.

I opened up the box, and like the Lively Lemon cookies, these cookies were kind of small. Like I stated before, they are about the size of a Snapple cap, but 1 serving is 2 cookies as stated on the box.

I took a bite, and found them to be very moist, chewy, and almost fudgy in consistency. I actually really liked the texture, almost like a cake-cookie. They certainly weren’t like any Snickerdoodle I have eaten before, but they were still pretty good. A deep cinnamon flavor, and almost a bit of a burnt flavor as well. They were sweet without being too sweet, and even though there wasn’t molasses on the ingredient list, the flavor reminded me of something sweetened with molasses.

Overall, pretty good, and quite unique. I would probably eat these again, and I also love how the ingredient list was rather short- 4 stars.

Chocolate! Nothing is better than chocolate. Ok maybe peanut butter, but there’s room for debate on that one. ANYWAY, EnjoyLife sent me some boom CHOCO boom bars to try for free. I already reviewed the Rice Milk with Crispy Rice variety here, and thought it was pretty good. Today’s review is on the Dairy-Free Rice Milk Bar and the Dark Chocolate Bar.

Both these bars are free of nuts, soy, dairy, gluten, wheat, fish, shellfish, and eggs as stated on the wrapper. They are also both vegan.

I tried the dark chocolate one first, although hesistantly. As you probably know, I’m not a huge dark chocolate fan. I love the health benefits, but not a fan of the bitterness (Why can’t milk or white chocolate be as healthy as dark chocolate!!!??) I DID like how cute the squares were. Here’s a picture

So, I took a bite of the square, which was rather thick and had a nice bite to it, and was pleasantly surprised. Not as bitter as I thought it would be! It was creamy, actually kind of sweet, and there was a vanilla aftertaste as well. Pretty good! 3 1/2 stars

Next up, the Dairy-Free Rice Milk bar. At first this one was smooth and sweet, but as I continued to eat it, I noticed it had some kind of an aftertaste. Hmm. Have you ever had sugar free chocolate? I have, and I always noticed it had some sort of an aftertaste which was similar to what this bar had. Also what I found odd was that I could almost taste milk in this bar, despite the fact that it was dairy-free. Bizarre. It was OK, but not my favorite. 3 stars

Well, look at that! I actually liked the Dark Chocolate one more than the Dairy-Free Rice Milk bar! Go figure 😉

EnjoyLife offered to send me some of their cookies for free, and one of them was the Lively Lemon cookies. According to the box, these are wheat free, peanut free, dairy free, tree nut free, soy free, fish free, egg free and shellfish free, as well as being gluten free. I don’t have any food allergies, but I was still up for trying them anyway.

I opened the box, and saw kind of small-ish cookies with yellow spots on them. They smelled very fresh and lemon like. I took one out of the box and was a bit disappointed at how small they were. For a comparison, here’s what they looked like compared to a Snapple cap.

More like bite-sized cookies to me!

These cookies were super soft, no crunch here. They were chewy, except for the little yellow bumps that were a bit harder. They were sweet with a lemon zest flavor, and pretty good. It was strange that they were really moist, yet dry at the same time- odd? Overall, they were pretty good. Not amazing, but pretty good. I had a friend try one an she said they were “very good in their own way” but they “had something missing”. I agreed. 3 1/2 stars.

Well, Enjoy Life is a company notorious for producing allergy friendly foods. As part of their product line, there are the gluten free, nut free, dairy free, soy free, and egg free Trail Mixes in Mountain Mambo and Beach Bash flavors.

Enjoylife asked if I would do a review of these, and how could I turn it down? I can see myself a trail mix girl- I like some sweet & salty combos, and I’m a fan of dried fruit. Sure, I’ll try it ! 🙂

So, Enjoylife sent me 1 bag of each Mountain Mambo and BeachBash Trail Mixes.I tried the Mountain Mambo first- according to the website, this trail mix is “Made with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds (pepitas), fruit and chocolate chips, our nut-free trail mix is both wholesome and delicious.”
I noticed there were TONS of raisins in the bag- really, if you are a raisin fan, try this trail mix! There was also little bits of dried apple, which were chewy, but didn’t provide much flavor. The cranberries were tart, but only a few in the bag. There was, however, also a TON of seeds! They added a nice crunch to the otherwise softer textures in the bag. One thing also lacking was the chocolate chips. The picture on the website depicts a lot of mini chocolate chips, but my bag was lacking. Aw, man! Don’t scrimp on the chocolate!! 🙁 3 1/2 stars

Next, was Beach Bash. I liked this one much more. I love, love LOVED the bits of pineapple! Not tart in the least, they weer soft and chewy and soooooo delicious! I wish EnjoyLife sold a bag of just the pineapple! The apricot, however, was super tart, and counteracted the sweetness of the dried pineapple. There was a ton of sunflower seeds in this one, which also added good crunch and flavor. I can see myself snacking on this one at the beach 8) 4 stars

Overall, I think you should try these, and especially reccommend the Beach Bash flavor. They are good for a boost of protein and fiber, as well as some healthy fats, and have some yummy sweet flavors as well.